Splash Party for his 6th

B's sixth birthday party was celebrated today with a splash party, and it was a HUGE hit.  We made it a joint party with one of B's best friends I.  I and his family will be moving to Chicago in a few weeks, and I knew that between traveling to look at houses and trying to keep their own house clean and ready to be showed by a real estate agent at any minute, they didn't have time to throw a party.  I was going to be planning a party anyway, so why not include I and just let them help with the cost.  I mentioned it to his mom and dad a few weeks ago, and they thought it was a great idea.  So I started moving forward with a joint party, and it was lots of fun.

I started with the invitations which I found on etsy along with the cupcake toppers and favor labels.  I waited a bit too long to order them, so I barely got them out in the mail before the party.  But they were super cute.

inv pic

The precious couple that teaches the kids' Sunday school class at church has a side business renting those fun inflatable slides and bouncy houses.  When I spoke with them about renting their water slide, they gave it to the boys for their party as a birthday gift.  It was so unbelievably kind of them, and I have a treat up my sleeve for them. 

 

Yes, that's JuJu standing in the pool at the bottom of the slide.  That is the only way C would get in.  She is not a fan of the big water slides.  So with the entertainment taken care of, I moved on to the food.  I kept in extremely simple--even more so than in years past.  We picked up Hot n Ready pizzas from our local Little Caesar's and I ordered cupcakes from the Wal-Mart bakery.  I added some chips, grapes, and carrots with ranch as side items.  And of course I served ice cream with the cupcakes.

I kept it simple with the decorations as well.  Just plastic tablecloths and balloons.  Our church was generous enough to let us have the party on their property, so we pulled a few tables and chairs out and set up a small eating area for kids and parents.

The only real effort I put into the party was for the favors.  I made sugar cookies and decorated them with royal icing to look like beach balls.  This was my first time dealing with royal icing, and it was a royal pain.  haha  I don't plan on doing it again any time soon.  But they came out cute.

I set the favors up with my chalkboard sign, and left room on the table for the "gifts" that everyone was bringing.  Since I's family is getting ready to move halfway across the country, and we need another toy in the house like I need a hole in the head, we asked that all friends bring a book that we could donate to our local library in honor of B and I's sixth birthday.  So people piled up their books on the table with the favors.  I plan to put a little label in each book and drop them off at the library in a week or so.  We got well over 20 books to donate!

After playing on the slide for about an hour, we called everyone over to pray and eat.  I's dad said the blessing and I snapped the sweetest pic of the kids praying.  Then everyone ate, and it was time for cake, ice cream, candles and the singing of "Happy Birthday."  All the kids headed back to the slide as soon as the last candle was extinguished.  Water slide trumps cake apparently.  Who knew?

Aside from the fact that both of my kids got their first sunburns of their lives (parenting fail), this party could not have gone better!  Happy Birthday to my sweet boy, B, and his precious friend, I.  We sure will miss that whole family when they move!!